Fest your eyes on the Ultimate Windows Vista computer design concept. The image included on the left, as well as the ones at the bottom of this article are a part of the Carbon Design Group's portfolio. The machine you are able to see was designed to tailor fit Windows Vista, Microsoft's latest operating system. The concept is a direct result of the Redmond company's Industrial Design Toolkit, a resource shipped before the January 2007 launch of Vista to computer designers. There's no doubt that Microsoft stole a play from Apple's playbook and attempted to convince the OEM environment to create a fusion between their hardware design and the visual style of Windows Vista.

"With the launch of Windows Vista, Microsoft embarked on a never-been-tried-before initiative that spanned the entire hardware industry and attempted to bring the hardware and software design and development closer together than ever before. The design strategy was communicated in an Industrial Design Toolkit, which contained all the design components and specifications to create tangible visual representations of the colors, materials, fonts, and form language in the Windows Vista operating system," reads a message from the Carbon Design Group posted to describe the Microsoft Vista PC.

However, unlike Apple, which controls both the hardware and the software aspects of its products, Microsoft could only influence original equipment manufacturers, by suggesting machine designs. However, not controlling a closed production environment means that Microsoft's Industrial Design toolkit fell on deaf ears. And the design concept from Carbon remained at the status of the drawing board, although it has an immense potential.

"Microsoft engaged Carbon's design and engineering team to create a flagship concept PC to inspire as well as validate Microsoft's Industrial Design Toolkit. The Vista Concept PC emphasizes the dual nature of the PC as both a productivity tool and an entertainment device and became the purest embodiment of the Vista design language. The work is helping industry design the wave of next generation PC's," the Carbon Design Group stated.